Tuesday, 28 February 2017

Stina's hearts now total nine and enough to sew into a 12" square. My granddaughter Maisie says her babies need quilts so this is what this one will become. She has lots of babies so I see a lot of little quilts in my future.

Friday, 10 February 2017

Our last day was a relaxed affair. I chose to carry on and make progress on my little pink number. It was a mammoth feat to stitch around all of those curves on the oval but at last they were done and we could płay with the centre.

Several fabrics were auditioned from my stash but this one sang out to me. I had the perfect fabric to fussy cut the side bits to the vase and to make the base by adding two fabrics together. A mix of traditional and modern but they work. It was fun cutting out flowers. Now it is taking shape.

I had a lesson on making bias stems Marg style. I have never come across this way before but it was so quick and easy and therapeutic. Think I could have sat making these all afternoon. They are wonderfully soft and stretchy and no burnt fingers in the process.

My friend Anne who had also been on all four days had been working on this quilt and got stuck on how to finish it. Marg gave advise and by the end of the week it looked fabulous. I will need Anne's permission to show you the whole thing but those parrots are from an amazing piece of fabric.

I think you can tell by our faces that we had a great time.

Marg is a legend and has agreed to come back next year. I do hope so and I hope there will be something to show her in the way of progress. I hope you will come and join us next time.

I was so reluctant to leave this lovely atmosphere but I had to brave the journey home as Storm Doris was raging.

Wednesday, 8 February 2017

I decided that today I would have a change and make a start on Spring Fever. I really love this design. I chose the grey background as my starting point and marked the sections. The square is 22".

I bought the liberty print fabric last year and love it and think it looks great as the hare. Lots of colours to bring out in it. Definitely no pink in this one. More coral and oranges.

The squirrel fabric is one that was sent to me by my friend Sue-Anne in Australia. Think I could go into business selling this fabric as everyone wanted it. All will be revealed when it is stitched down.

Back to some pink. I took along this golden oldie to show Marg. This is from her version of Not The Levens Hall quilt. I put it away after not being able to decide where to go after this section was made. Marg spotted the stripe fabric in my box and cut out a few hexagons to try. I kind of like it and it brightens it up. Have cut a few more out and that is for another day to show and tell.

Sunday, 5 February 2017

Before Day 2 could commence I had a bit of tacking to do. There is method to what appears madness. It is easier to fill in small sections of blank spaces with applique rather than a huge blank space. What you put in one space can easily be mirror imaged with a grid system. I apologise as I am sitting on the bed and in my nightie. As it happened that night I could not sleep so at 2am I was stitching away trying to while away the hours. Over excited I expect.

Today was about making binding to go around the large central oval. Strips had to be joined and totalling around 60" or 1.5metres. Think you can just see my drawn wavy line around the outside edge. This is a lot of applique and it certainly took me several nights to finish it.

My friend Marie who was sitting opposite me said that all she could see when she looked up was pink so I gave her my camera. Wish I could say that gorgeous pink bag belonged to me but no, it belongs to Marg. The cake was not mine. I was trying to be good.

The quilt on the right is what I am aspiring to do .

I also had the delightful pleasure to be sitting next to Little Miss Alice quilt all week and the detail is just mouthwatering.

Marg Sampson George is amazing. We had a full on four days of stitching with this lovely, fun lady at Cowslip Workshopsand watching her in action taming the stash was so enlightening.

My focus fabric to choose my palette was the scrap of pretty Liberty print on the left. It had all the colours that I love and adore. The next task was to simply cut out a few shapes from the chosen palette and audition backgrounds. Decision making is not my forte and I dithered quite a bit.

I finally chose this beautifully soft Lecien fabric as my background and for anyone saying "pink again" let me impart a few words of wisdom from the teacher. Your colour is your colour. Make no apologies. It is a personal thing and you have to go with it. It felt like a lightbulb moment. For me pink is such an uplifting colour and is a perfect background choice for so many fabrics and I am not afraid to use it.

Sue had a special birthday and we sang happy birthday in our best voices and yes that cake was delicious.

Colour inspiration on the table.

Day one done, well not quite because 8 of us decamped to a pub to celebrate Sue's special birthday.